U.S. Pat. No. 4,165,832 to Kuklies et al, discloses packs of thermoplastic grocery sacks wherein the individual bags are designed to be held in registration by being thermally welded together at a suspension tab member which extends from the center region of the bag mouth. While this type of unitization is effective in maintaining the sacks in secure uniform registration at the bag mouth region, they do not keep the handles in registration. Such a bag pack is structured to be suspended from the center of the pack and it is awkward during dispensing and bag filling to deal with the loose unsecured handles particularly in bag packs containing over 100 bags in the pack.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,106,734 to Walitalo is directed to handleless plastic bags which are held in registration by employing a small adhesive area below the bag mouth of the front ply of each bag so that it contacts the back ply of the next bag in the stack. Thus, in addition to maintaining the bags in registration at the bag mouth region this feature also will assist in at least partially opening the bag mouth as each preceding filled bag is removed from the pack.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,796,759 to Schisler is directed to a pack of thermoplastic film handled grocery sacks. A hole is present in each handle so as to receive a rod therethrough designed to support the bag pack by the handles. A center support tab extends from the mouth of each bag and the tabs are joined together by welding or gluing to secure the bags in a pack. A line of perforations separate the support tab from the bag mouth. Below the perforation line of each bag is a "glued or welded localized zones 9" which insures connection between the rear wall of one bag and the front wall of the next bag and so on through the bag pack. Above this point 9, the welded-together support tabs maintain the bags in registration and the localized glued or welded zones 9 assists in opening the top of the bags during the dispensing and loading of the same. This construction has the disadvantage that no provision is made for maintaining the handles in registration prior to mounting the pack on a dispensing rack.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,676,378 issued to Baxley et al is directed to a pack of thermoplastic film grocery sacks having integral handles extending therefrom. Each handle has an arcuate cut surrounding a tab-like member therein, so as to receive a support rod through the cut which supports the bag pack from the handles during bag dispensing and filling. During manufacture of the bag pack, a heated member fuses the individual orifice tabs together in order to make it easier to thread the bag handles onto the support rods. In order to accomplish this result, a complex and intricate cutting and hot pin welding device is required.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,811,417 to Prince et al shows a bag pack having vertical slit supports in the handles and the handles are melt-bonded together at the top by means of a heated pin device.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,989,732 to Smith shows a bag pack and dispensing system wherein the bags of the pack are releasably pressure bonded together in areas of the handles alone or in combination with an area of the bag mouth.
It is a principal object of the present invention to provide a pack of thermoplastic film grocery sacks having integrally extended handles with support means in association with the handles and providing means whereby a bag to be loaded is more fully opened.